"They did WHAT?!"

Megaman had returned to the Flutter and was talking to his family about his day. Roll's reaction, while normal and completely expected, still caused Megaman's ears to ring a little bit. He rubbed at his right ear while showing the 'payment bag' from earlier that day. "Here, take a look."

He slid the bag to her, and Roll unceremoniously dumped its contents onto the Flutter's living room table. Seeing the frankly insignificant amount of shards, her eyes went as wide as saucers. "That's- I can't believe someone would do that to you! It's fraud!"

"It's pretty bad," he agreed. "But it's too late to do anything about it. I only have a first name and no idea where they went. I'll just have to think of this as… a life lesson, I guess."

Barrell shook his head. "You meet all kinds of people, and this is the proof. Still, I'm sorry it happened to you."

Megaman just shrugged. It would be a lie to say he wasn't still angry about it, but even he knew that life moved on. Fuming over it wouldn't help. "The good news is that I have another job lined up, and the pay was already agreed on. I'm gonna be teaching some kids about cooking."

Roll began to put the shards back into the fabric bag as she sat back into her chair. "Well, that's nice to hear, and at least it won't be so back-breaking. How much will you make?"

"2000 Zenny a lesson, although I don't know how many lessons we're gonna do." He considered that as he took the bag from Roll's hands. "Depending on what we do, I could do maybe three lessons? How much do those Servbots know about cooking, anyways?"

Getting an idea, Megaman turned his head to speak to Data, who was sitting next to him. "Data, can you bring me the cookbook we read out of sometimes? I think I should bring that to work."

The monkey complied while Megaman went to his room to grab his backpack; it was orange, which he knew contrasted his blue armor, but a good bag was a good bag. While in his bedroom he grabbed his apron as well, throwing it into the bag before returning to the living room. Data had already set the book down, so he packed that into the bag before glancing across the table.

"...I guess I might still need the pocket change sometime." Saying that, he threw the refractor shard bag in as well. Never know when you might need to pay for a soda, right?

-Legends-

Megaman was pretty anxious about tutoring, as it wasn't something he'd done before; but, all he could do was take a deep breath as he stood in front of the green warehouse where he'd be working. Shuffling his backpack a little, he knocked three times on the door. He thought that he'd be waiting for a moment, but the very instant his knocks stopped, the door opened and a grinning Servbot looked up at him. "Hello, Mr. Teacher! We've been waiting for you."

He smiled, the robot's honest enthusiasm helping to loosen his nerves. "Thanks, is everyone ready?"

"Yep, just come on in!" Megaman followed behind him, taking a peek around as he was led to the kitchen. The building didn't have much in its main storage area, and what was present was all covered by tarps.

Well, everything except one where the tarp had fallen off, he noted. On a wooden table in a corner was an assortment of nuts and bolts, and on the wall just above that was what appeared to be the diagram of a ship. His curiosity piqued, he asked the Servbot, "So, what are you guys working on?"

"Just repairing our ship," came the chipper reply. "We had an accident, but nobody got hurt."

"Woah. I'm glad you're all okay."

"...I wouldn't say that, sir." Megaman was about to ask what he meant, but the Servbot changed tones as soon as they stepped into the kitchen. "Here we are! Miss Tron, this is our tutor."

Turning to face them was a girl about his age. She had a pink and gray shirt on with a skull-ish logo at its center, as well as earrings with the same; idly, Megaman realized he had seen the same skull on Mister Teisel's shoulders and pondered if it meant anything. Her eyebrow raised for a moment as she observed him in return, before it turned into a furrowed brow while she crossed her arms. "I was expecting someone a bit… nevermind. I'm Tron, and I'll be supervising your lesson."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Megaman-"

"Mister Blue Guy!" All heads turned to the speaker, which turned out to be another of the Servbots. There were five standing in a row wearing aprons, but the one on the far left had his hands raised. "I didn't think I'd see you again!"

"Mister Blue-" Megaman realized something and smiled. "Oh, you're one of the ones I helped a few days ago. Hello again."

"Hi!" The Servbot turned to Tron to explain. "Miss Tron, Mister Blue Guy helped me and #12 get the food cart here when we were having trouble pushing."

"Really now?" Rather than look relieved, she seemed to be scrutinizing him harder. "And why would you do that?"

He shrugged. "No real reason, they just looked like they needed help."

A moment of silence stretched while she processed that. Megaman nearly wanted to ask what was wrong, but Tron's expression softened just a bit as she said, "Well, thanks. The one you helped was Servbot #1, while the others-"

She began to put them out from left to right, the Servbots bowing as they were addressed. "-are #3, #6, #16, and #25. #14 is the one who let you in, and he'll be writing notes while the others cook. He's the most organized out of all of them."

#14 nodded his head before stepping aside for a moment to grab some materials. He came back with two notepads, one of which he passed to Megaman. "This is the list of ingredients here, Sir. Just tell us what to grab and we'll do it."

"Thanks." Megaman sat down on a stool as he looked over the list. Fruits, veggies, types of pasta… it seemed like they'd gotten a bit of everything at the market. His eyes stopped at the meats when he saw 'boneless chicken tenderloins', and he reached into his bag to grab the recipe book. Flipping through it, he landed on a Chicken with rice and gravy recipe .

Making up his mind, he addressed all of the Servbots while showing them the cookbook. "Alright, I want to see how you guys are at cooking, so we're going to do something pretty easy. Can you get everything on this page and bring it to the stovetop? Also, do we have a rice cooker?"

"Right over there." #14 pointed towards the countertop, and Megaman was surprised to see three large ones side-by-side, at least until he remembered they were a family of over forty people; of course they'd need that many rice cookers.

"Good, get the stuff, then, and meet me at the stovetops." The troop scattered while Megaman grabbed his apron and put it on over his armor. Tron sat on a chair while keeping her arms crossed, face neutral and not revealing any of her thoughts.

When the Servbots came back, they'd gathered: rice, chicken, green beans, some cooking oil for the pans, and the makings for the gravy and spices. Realizing that he couldn't really tell them apart, he would have to call out their numbers and hope everything just went well. "Okay, #1, please show me on the stove what setting you usually cook your meats on."

"Okay!" One stepped forward and grabbed the knob for the gas stove. Once it was lit, he set the burner to just below High. "Like this?"

"Yep, go ahead and turn it off now." With a click it was cut off. "So, the first lesson I want to cover is 'Low and Slow.' Can any of you guess what I mean?"

The Servbots all glanced at each other, none of them raising their hands. "That's okay," he reassured them gently. "Nothing's wrong with not knowing. What Low and Slow means is that oftentimes it's better to cook food, especially meats, at lower heat over a longer time rather than High and super quick. When you cook it quickly, you run the risk of drying out the food too much."

He pointed at the chicken tenderloins still in their package. "While following the rest of the recipe, I want you guys to cook one piece of chicken at your normal heat, and the rest on Medium. You'll understand what kind of difference it can make."

"""Roger!"""

The next twenty odd minutes were spent going over the simple instructions, each Servbot picking a spot on the counter and staying there, which made sense given that they all had to be on stools. #14 was quietly writing down everything he said, but he honestly didn't have to say much; they could follow the recipe pretty well.

When all of the food but the green beans were done, he waved for Tron to come over while he addressed the group. "Okay, so cut up this 'normal cooked' chicken piece so you can all taste it, then once you do that cut up a slower cooked piece and repeat."

Tron grabbed one of the small pieces of meat, remaining silent in her chewing while the others mumbled things like "Yep, that's chicken…" When they were done with the first piece, #3 began to slice up the second. There was a visible difference, the Servbots noticed, what with more juices coming out of the cut meat. #3 almost began to drool, but finished his cuts so everyone could grab a bite. As one, they all took a chomp.

"...it's tender." Megaman had to fight to keep his face professional from Tron's compliment. Meanwhile, the Servbots were starting to get excited while they chewed. "It's juicy!" "Oh that's better!" "Does that work for vegetables?"

#14 raised his hand once he was done with his piece. "Teacher, does this work with all foods? That was delicious!"

Megaman gave a small hm. "I don't think so, but I haven't worked with every food out there so I'm not sure. I know that it doesn't work if you're deep-frying something, at least."

#16 was next. "How do we know which foods to try it on?"

"Usually, the recipes in cookbooks will have recommended cooking temperatures; but if you think something dried out following one, maybe give it a try then."

"Oooooh." They nodded in unison. "Okay, let's finish the meal!"

Once the green beans were finished the gravy thickened, plates were passed out for everyone present to be served. Megaman didn't think he'd get a spot, but a plate was prepared for him anyway, so he sat at the table with the rest of them. The Servbots went straight into eating, and-

"I like this gravy!" "Low and Slow for the rest of my life." "#3, are you crying?" "I'm happy, okay?"

It was a hit, he was not surprised to discover; what was a surprise, however, was that even Tron was nodding as she ate her meal. She wasn't devouring it like the robots were, but she had a definite smile as she coated a green bean in gravy before bringing it to her mouth.

Once she was finished, she wiped her mouth with a napkin and said, "Alright, you've sold me on that cookbook at least. Can I see it? We should buy our own copy."

"Sure." He pulled it out, the worn cover of ' Comfort Cooking: Volume 1' being displayed. "Let me know if you can't find the book, I'll come back so you guys can copy the recipes."

"Mhm." She studied it for a moment to commit it to memory. "Ah, before you go, can you help the Servbots clean up?"

"Yeah, no problem." Wiping his own mouth, he stood and talked to the table at large. "Okay, you guys ready to get stuff cleaned?"

All the Servbots' hands went up. """Yes, Teacher!"""

He chuckled a little. "You know, you don't really have to call me that. Just Megaman is fine."

"Okay!"

He grabbed a broom and tackled the floor while the robots did the dishes, each assuming a position and moving in a firm manner. Clearly these small guys were used to getting things done in the kitchen; honestly, what else could he do for them besides recommend food?

Once the kitchen was spotless, Tron handed him a small envelope. When she turned around to talk to the Servbots for a moment, he checked its contents: 2000 Zenny, as promised. Success! "Alright, Megaman," she spoke slowly, "you did your job and I can't complain. How about tomorrow you come here, say, one in the afternoon? We'll take you shopping with us, and we can decide on the next tutor meal then."

"Sounds like a plan," he answered with a smile. "I'll bring the book, too. Thank you for hiring me for this."

"Just keep doing your best-" She gave him a teasing smirk. "- Teacher." Megaman could only scratch the back of his head in embarrassment; he felt itchy being called something like that, and Tron clearly saw that and was just messing with him.

He was escorted out of the building like the day before, but this time all of the Servbots he'd taught were there to wave goodbye, and he waved back as he walked away. He felt the satisfaction of a job well done, however brief the job itself had been, and couldn't wait to get back to them and keep tutoring them. It was just a little sad that family wouldn't need him for much, since he enjoyed the company of-

Megaman tilted his head a little. If they were one big family, what was their family name, anyways? He'd have to ask them next time they met.